In a profane rant filled with lies and false accusations, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) unleashed a venomous screed in the halls of Congress attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, the retired immunologist who served as the public face of the federal government’s battle against the COVID pandemic, just after she had attacked him face-to-face during a House committee hearing Monday.
Dr. Fauci retired at the end of 2022 after serving since 1984 as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but the right and the far-right’s false claims about COVID and Fauci during a pandemic that caught the Trump White House off guard one year after it dismantled President Barack Obama’s pandemic response team, continue to this day.
Among them, Congresswoman Greene’s remarks Monday afternoon.
“The Democrats are responsible for the lockdowns, forced vaccinations, kids being forced to stay home, people committing suicide, and all of the horrors that this country lived through during COVID,” the Georgia GOP lawmaker said on-camera in little-noticed remarks she posted to social media (video below).
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“Fauci belongs in prison. He should be tried for mass murder and crimes against humanity. That’s how I feel after that hearing. That’s how the American people feel.”
Greene is wrong.
Both Democratic and Republican governors and local authorities directed Americans to stay home in the early days of the pandemic. Some directed out of state visitors to quarantine. Some closed schools and transitioned to virtual classrooms, and some instructed residents to stay home except for medical emergencies or trips to the supermarket.
So did then-President Trump on March 16, 2020:
Since General George Washington mandated inoculations for his soldiers, Americans at times have been required to be vaccinated against infectious diseases. The CDC recommends dozens of vaccinations for infants through adolescence, and again in adulthood, including for seniors. All 50 states have vaccination mandates for public school students.
Dr. Peter Hotez, considered a “vaccine specialist,” in 2023 estimated 200,000 Americans died as a result of refusing the COVID vaccine.
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In December of 2022, The Atlantic‘s Yasmin Tayag, citing studies wrote, “by far the single group of adults most likely to be unvaccinated is Republicans: 37 percent of Republicans are still unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, compared with 9 percent of Democrats. Fourteen of the 15 states with the lowest vaccination rates voted for Donald Trump in 2020. (The other is Georgia.)”
The Georgia Republican Congresswoman in her hallway remarks on Monday claimed “everything” she said in the hearing was “correct.”
“It’s how the American people feel, is what we know to be a fact.”
Congresswoman Greene said Dr. Fauci was not a doctor, as far as she was concerned.
“It’s all the evidence has been proven true,” she also claimed.
“We have [Democratic Congressman] Jamie Raskin in there accusing us of worshipping Trump, worshipping a convicted felon,” Greene also said, using air quotes as if Trump were not a convicted felon.
When told Donald Trump is a convicted felon, Greene replied, “well, yeah. So was George Floyd,” referring to the unarmed Black man whose murder by police set off massive nationwide protests.
“The media worships George Floyd. Democrats worship George Floyd, there were riots burning down the f*cking country over George Floyd and Raskin’s in there say we worship him. Excuse me, let me correct you, and this is really important. I don’t worship, I worship God, God, and Jesus is my Savior. I don’t worship President Trump, and I’m really sick and tired of the b*llsh*t antics I have to deal with constantly from the Democrats.”
Despite Greene’s insistence that “the American people feel” that “Fauci belongs in prison” and “should be tried for mass murder and crimes against humanity,” polling firm YouGov ranks Dr. Fauci as the 17th most popular person in America. Pope Francis is ranked at number 18. 49% of Americans have a positive opinion of Dr. Fauci.